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Sani Yi Goat Cheese - Rǔbǐng (乳饼)
Contributed by: Ritva Lehonkoski
Yield: About 300-500 gram of cheese (1/2-1 pound)

Ingredients and Supplies
  A. A clean piece of finely woven cloth
  B. A colander or sieve
  C. 2.5 liters (.65 gallon) of goat milk
  D. 30-40 ml (about 1/8 cup) vinegar

Instructions
  1. Line the colander with the clean piece of finely woven cloth. If you don’t have cheesecloth, you can use a big handkerchief or the front or back of a white T-shirt.
  2. Take 2.5 liters (.65 gallon) of goat’s milk and heat it in a pan until it reaches the boiling point. While heating, stir the milk constantly to avoid scorching. Teflon pans are good for this.
  3. When the milk reaches the boiling point, turn off the gas. If you are using an electric stove, remove the pan from the heat.
  4. Slowly add about 30-40 ml (1/8 cup) vinegar, stir thoroughly and wait for a couple of minutes for the curds to separate from the whey (liquid part). The curds look like white soft lumps while the whey is yellowish and watery. Add more vinegar if necessary.
  5. Quickly ladle the curds into the sieve. Wrap the cloth around the curds holding it from the corners and press gently so that extra liquid runs out from the mass. Then gently work them with your hands to form a brick shaped mass.
  6. Wrap the brick shaped mass tightly and squeeze any extra whey (liquid) out by pressing the brick with your hands.
  7. Leave the tightly wrapped cheese in the sieve to cool and drain for about half an hour.
  8. The cheese can be stored in a refrigerator up to one week.

Picture
Sani Yi usually enjoy eating fried slices of rubing.
Photo by: Carl von Bell

Some Important Tips
The secret of making the rubing really firm is to do step 5 above while the curds are still hot (but don’t burn your hands). Press the mass inwards with your hands or with the cloth. Don’t examine how the cheese mass looks inside, because after that the curds will not stick well together any more. If the curds cool too much, the cheese may be soft and not suitable for slicing. If that happens, you cannot fry it as the Sani Yi do, but it is still good for other cooking or for making cheese spread. If your cheese turns out to be too soft to serve as rubing, make it into a cheese spread. You can use salt, garlic, pepper, or herbs to flavor the curds. For example, finely chopped garlic fried in a little butter and mixed into the cheese curds together with some salt, makes a wonderful garlic cheese spread. Try making rubing and enjoy whatever delicacy you end up creating!

Factors that affect the results
There are several factors that affect the results. Raw milk obtained directly from the animal curds easily, but not all such milk is safe. Milk sold in shops is normally pasteurized to ensure it is free from harmful pathogens. If you have a choice of homogenized or non-homogenized milk, use the latter. But the most important thing is to choose fresh and safe whole milk. Some people use cow’s milk to make rubing, but the yield tends to be less than from goat’s milk.